How essential is it to have a business continuity plan?

Business today are becoming increasingly reliant on complex supply trains and technology, increasing the need for a suitable and workable business continuity plans in the event of having to deal with a variety of business risks of both natural and of man-made origin to ensure they are able to survive and continue in the event disaster strikes.

• Why should you have a continuity plan?

Business continuity planning is an important part of any recovery strategy. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to develop a workable continuity plan so if disaster strikes they are unable to recover quickly. They offer up various excuses for not having a proper plan.

The following are reasons why it’s essential to have a business continuity plan:

• People do not always know what to do in an emergency

You cannot just expect your employees to know what to do in an emergency situation, everyone is likely to react differently unless they are well trained and have a specific plan to follow. A major part of business continuity plan is to work out what specific threats your business could face and develop a plan or a set of plans for different types of emergencies and ensure your staff all know what to do and the roles they are expected to play in these emergency situations

• Insurance

Regardless of which comprehensive insurance policy that you have, it will not cover everything. Peripheral damages such as loss of customers, goodwill, development setbacks and market share are concepts that are difficult to measure and place a value on, but they could be real losses you could face in some disaster situations.

An insurance policy is part of your business continuity plan and you need to discuss and get in writing what is covered so you can make arrangements to cover these areas

• Too busy to make a continuity plan

This is a common thought, but in reality, you cannot afford to neglect this important step in securing your business’s future. It should be viewed as an investment of time, if you really are too busy then you need to consider having an outside party doing it for you. All your fixed costs will continue regardless even if you’re not trading so can quickly add up to a substantial amount that has the potential to destroy your business. The sooner you begin trading again the more likely your business is to survive

Business continuity plans are good business investments

Whether it’s a cyclone, bush-fire, earthquake, super draught, cyber-attack, vandalism, robbery or some other disaster that your business has to deal with, the companies that have a proper continuity plan and are able to proactively consider the best ways to respond to a given emergency situation will always be the first to get back into production or business.

Your business continuity plan should cover minor disruptions as well, how would your business fare if you had a prolonged electricity disruption or no water for several weeks. What about if your laptop is stolen with all your security codes and financial details, could you survive and at what cost?

Having a predefined business continuity plan combined with the correct risk determined insurance covers takes much of the guess work and stress of deciding the best course action during and after a business is disrupted or halted due to any type of disaster

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